The invention relates to the field of positioning stages for use in lithography or embossing, and in particular to a high-resolution flexural stage for in-plane position and out-of-plane pitch/roll alignment.
There have been many designs for positioning and alignment stages used in the prior art addressing applications such as lithography, embossing, and stamping of nano-structures. However, many of these designs lack the ability to simultaneously allow alignment in the X-Y plane as well as provide alignment the along pitch-roll (θX-θY) rotational axes using the same actuators to achieve either alignment. Moreover, these prior-art stage designs have lower payload capacity and limited resolution, and need at least one actuator per degree-of-freedom, thereby increasing the overall cost of the implementation. Furthermore, passive alignment could be detrimental to the structures being worked on because of stability considerations. The present invention addresses the deficiencies presented in the prior art.